Tag Archive: Advice

This is a subject that drives me up a wall. I hate when I am reading a book and I start to hear the same words over and over. To me it’s just lazy writing and a sign of really bad editing.

Using the same a few times is common in your first draft. But by the time your book gets published you shouldn’t have the issue.

Your character walks to their car, gets in their car, and then drives their car. How many times do you really need to say car? It’s annoying and distracts the reader.

Out of the last 20 romance novels I’ve read this year, at least 15 of them had them problem and all but one of them were from real publishers, not indie’s.

So how did that even happen? I think (and again this is just my theory) that writers get it in their head that if they get an agent and a “real” publishing deal, that the publishers will take full responsibility for every little bit of editing your book, but in the end it is your book with your name on it, so you can’t leave it up to someone else.

The best thing you could ever do is to HEAR your words. Sometimes hearing your written words spoken out loud, will help you spot mistakes you just don’t notice when reading it. What I do is use a TTS (text to speech) program on my iphone called Voice Dream. I think I paid $1.99 for the app. I load up my entire word document and then have it read it back to me, chapter my chapter. I close my eyes and just listen.

If you don’t do this for your book then you are making a huge mistake. While your publisher will no doubt do their best, it is still your book and you want it to be perfect, right?

SO STOP REPEATING WORDS. Seriously. You don’t need to say door 3 times in a single paragraph.